PAGE ONE (WASHINGTON) -- What Hillary Clinton Said / She tells grand jury she doesn't know how records reappeared

Marc Sandalow, Chronicle Washington Bureau

Published
4:00 am PST, Saturday, January 27, 1996

1996-01-27 04:00:00 PDT Washington -- First lady Hillary Rodham Clinton emerged from four hours of unprecedented grand jury testimony yesterday insisting that she has no idea how missing Whitewater documents suddenly appeared in the White House living quarters.

Clinton said the closed-door session focused primarily on the recent discovery of personal records documenting her work for the failed Arkansas savings and loan that has been at the center of the Whitewater controversy. The papers had been under subpoena for two years.

"I was glad to have the opportunity to tell the grand jury what I've been telling all of you," Clinton

told reporters gathered outside the federal court building on a chilly January evening. "I do not know how the billing records came to be found where they were found."

Clinton is the first president's wife to be summoned before a criminal grand jury. She is not considered to be a target of the jury's investigation, and her testimony does not indicate any criminal wrongdoing.

Nonetheless, the specter of a first lady taking the stand raised speculation that the investigation into the Whitewater matter might grow to become a significant obstacle to President Clinton's re-election.

The courthouse was mobbed with reporters, camera crews and Secret Service agents. The presence of CNN legal analyst Greta Van Susteren, seated outside on a chair in front of a camera, reminded some of the circus-like scene outside the O. J. Simpson murder trial.

Clinton arrived in a limousine and spoke briefly into a bank of microphones before entering the courthouse, located only a couple of blocks from the U.S. Capitol. She proceeded to the third floor hearing room, where she was to be questioned by Special Prosecutor Kenneth Starr and the 23 members of the grand jury.

The content of grand jury hearings is confidential,

and Clinton provided the only account of the events inside. Members of the media, and even her own attorneys, were barred from the hearing.

Upon leaving the building, Clinton talked to reporters for less than five minutes.

"There were other matters discussed, but most of it concerned the billing records," she said. "I, like everyone else, would like to know how those documents showed up after all these years. It would have been certainly to my advantage trying to bring this matter to closure if they had been found several years ago."

MISSING RECORDS

The documents were subpoenaed two years ago by prosecutors, but the White House said the records were missing.

But the documents were suddenly turned over this month to the prosecutors after an aide, Carolyn Huber, found them on a table in a room in the White House living quarters. The aide said she found the records in August and put them in a box, then realized this month that they were the records that had been subpoenaed.

The grand jury has the power to indict if it believes someone tried to hide the records to obstruct the investigation.

Just what the records prove is a matter of interpretation.

The records show Clinton did about 60 hours of work for Madison Guaranty Savings and Loan over 15 months -- reflecting 21 contacts with Madison executives and other lawyers at her Rose Law Firm in Little Rock, Ark.

Before the billing records were discovered and turned over to investigators, Clinton described -- under oath -- her work for Madison as "minimal" and said that she had not worked on another project under investigation known as Castle Grande.

'MINIMAL' WORK

She has said in recent interviews that the billing records do not contradict her account, saying she does not consider 60 hours of work over several years to be anything more than minimal.

Before she was taken by motorcade to the courthouse, Clinton spent some of the morning alone with her husband at the White House.

"The president reassured her, told her that he loves her, that she would do a good job," press secretary Mike McCurry said.

Before she arrived, a throng of observers gathered across the street, many carrying signs. One supporter's sign declared: "We're with you, Hillary." But critics' signs read, "Liar, liar, pants on fire" and "It's ethics, stupid."

Asked if there was someplace she would rather be, she smiled, saying "Oh, about a million other places."